August 12, 2013

Colour exists as an emotional camera that makes it possible for us to represent and reflect upon specific life moments.

Growing up, I consumed a lot of advertising. Some of the adverts that stood out were those for beverage companies. I succinctly remember the Fanta tv commercial that had Disney characters interacting effortlessly with the humans – they all proclaimed Fanta as their friend, I remember the Mirinda advertising campaign with the Three Orange Men who waltzed around Lagos.

The colour that these ads represented was Orange. Orange represented growth, liveliness, youth, optimism and happiness. In the case of the Three Orange Men it represented mystery and curiosity. Orange embodied life in ways that appealed to me as a boy and I was affected by it.

For Bruno Poirier, Orange represents openness and is the foundation of life.

I recently got to know about Bruno Poirier and his work. Bruno is a Parisian artist fascinated by nature and obsessed with the colour Orange, a colour that has provided direction for his art and deeply enriched his life.

Relentlessly for over 10 years he has painted everyday the oldest pear tree in Paris. He always begins his paintings with the colour orange, a colour he became conscious of in the 70’s.

Bruno’s paintings reflect his desire to engage with his environment and with a colour that has marked some of the major moments of his life – one being getting married wearing Orange.

Apart from being a record of his environment and emotions through the years and a literal representation of consistency, discipline and passion Bruno’s work and life represents what we may experience when we allow the twin forces of nature and colour into our lives allowing them to stir our lives into paths that not only enrich our lives but that of our environment and the people in it.

With colour we can add more beauty to the world . What is your colour moment?

October 12, 2011

My daily daily drawing project Draw365 has gotten to the 274th mark. Considering I started this project in December 2009, this isn’t a situation I am particularly pleased with but, in recent months I have gotten involved in exhibiting my drawings (locally and internationally), organising art workshops, art directing and creating illustrations for commisioned projects. These projects have taken a fair bit of my time hence the lack of consistency with my daily drawing posts.

At this point, its a bit awkward referring to this project as a daily drawing project as months have come and gone with no drawings to show but, I have the urge and enthusiasm to finish what i have started. I have 91 drawings to create in order to complete this iteration of the Draw365 daily drawing project and in the coming days and months I will be posting drawings as I make them.

I really appreciate the interest that this project has generated. Thank you for all the views, comments and Twitter RTs, they have been quite motivating. 🙂

For today, I present the 24th drawing from my Draw365 Pattern series : Draw365 #275